Key findings of the ILO youth unemployment report

Youth unemployment stood at 13% globally at the end of 2009, equivalent to 81 million young people. That’s an increase of 7.8 million since 2007, prior to the global crisis. Here are other key findings:

• More than 36.4 million of these 15-24 year-olds were in the Asia-Pacific, home to 56% (approximately 350 million) of the global economically active youth population of 620 million).

• At the end of 2009 there were 12.8 million unemployed young people in East Asia, 8.3 million in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and 15.3 million in South Asia.

• Globally, the youth unemployment rate is expected to continue rising until the end of 2010 to reach 13.1%, before falling back to 12.7% in 2011. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific the rate is expected to peak at 14.8% this year before falling to 14.6% in 2011. In South Asia and East Asia the rates peaked in 2009 and the projected 2010 rates of 10.3% and 8.4% are predicted to fall in 2011 to 9.8% and 8.1%, respectively.

• In many parts of Asia-Pacific — and globally — young women faced more difficulty finding work than their male counterparts. The 2009 female youth unemployment rate for Southeast Asia and the Pacific stood at 15.7%, compared to 14% for men. In South Asia it was 10.9% for young women and 10.1% for young men. Globally, the rates were 13.2% for women and 12.9% for men. –Businessworld